9 September 2016 12:00 am
China’s overdue credit card payments rose 4.91 percent in the second quarter from the quarter before, the country’s central bank said yesterday in a report posted on its official website. As the speed of growth in the country slows, borrowers have been finding it harder to repay debt, leading to an increase in soured loans. Credit card payments overdue by more than six months hit 48.1 billion yuan ($7.22 billion) at the end of the second quarter, the report said. Such overdue payments made up 1.43 percent of the total amount outstanding on credit cards. Non-performing loans of China’s commercial banking sector rose to 1.81 percent of total lending at the end of the second quarter, the highest since the global financial crisis in 2009. Bill business fell by 21.39 percent on-year to 46.8 trillion yuan in the second quarter, following the tightening of oversight after the country’s banks suffered multi-million dollar frauds. Meanwhile, the number of bank cards in use at the end of the second quarter rose 15.83 percent on year to 5.83 billion cards, according to the data.